Wednesday, 9 July 2008

Thought I'd offer a quick update on the Church of England's ongoing crisis – it turns out the Vatican's not very happy about it's decision to allow female bishops to be ordained, as it "signifies a breaking away from the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the churches since the first millennium, and is a further obstacle for reconciliation between the Catholic church and the Church of England."

My first thought was "didn't they split up almost 500 years ago" but apparently the Vatican says attempts at reconciliation had "up until now born fruit", that is up until the Church of England made moves to stop being explicitly sexist and homophobic.

Meanwhile, I learnt from the same article that there is such a thing as a "Catholic wing of the Church of England" and one of their number, the Rev Prebendary David Houlding, isn't very happy with the Archbishop of Canterbury:

"Rowan Williams is going to Lambeth with his own church in chaos. First gay weddings, and now women bishops. They [the archbishops of Canterbury and York] showed a lack of leadership. They made two very clear pleas to synod, to have some safeguards for us, and nobody listened. Williams will have no authority. The last thing he wanted was an ecclesiological row. I feel very sorry for him."

"First gay weddings, and now women bishops" – the Church of England's going t'dogs I tell you. Whatever next? Stay tuned for more news of this gripping saga...